I don’t think I’m wrong in thinking that many of us are very much looking forward to saying farewell, au revoir and auf wiedersehen to 2020. It has been quite the turbulent year, to say the least, and I’m sure almost people are exhausted and ready for the Christmas break. With vaccines preparing to be rolled out, 2021 is already starting to look more hopeful and ‘normality’ may actually start to return.

Whilst we’ll be quite glad to see the back of this year, we shouldn’t totally forget it. We’ve seen a lot of great things come out of 2020 that had a real impact on lives and society – from the generosity of people and companies offering their money and support to those in need, to finding a better work life balance through remote working –, so it’s not all been doom and gloom.

Here at Firefly, we have had many moments of inspiration throughout the year. If anything, the whirlwind of 2020 got us talking, debating and sharing so much more, with lots of great new ideas and reflections in the comms space. Launching Reputation Shapers was most definitely a highlight for us – more on that below! With every crisis comes creativity, new thinking and differing outlooks on life, and so I wanted to share some of our best pieces of content.

1. Unrestricted creative thinking in an ever more restricted world. Back in March, when we were all feeling a little uncertain and unmotivated, Charlotte wrote this piece which includes some handy tools to help boost creativity and morale – something we’ll definitely be needing again in January when we come back refreshed from the Christmas holidays!
2. Communicating in a global crisis. Effectively communicating in a crisis is tough, as some companies have learnt this year (some better than others). Angel’s piece from April discussed this conundrum and how we can navigate a meaningful message in a troubling time.
3. Europe: How to get multi-country comms right. Did you catch our webinar ran by our European PR experts? Here’s a taster of what they discussed.
4. It’s time for comms to get serious about ‘cancel culture’. Whilst the pandemic distracted us from many things, it failed to distract us from cancel culture. In fact, the movement seemed even more prevalent this year. Tim delves into more detail in this piece and why it’s important for us comms folk to get our heads around.
5. The Covid marketing brain: How marketers are thinking and acting in new ways. Marketers have had to shut down some plans, rethink others and completely move away from their usual timeline. The team and I decided to illustrate what the marketers brain might look like in this piece for Just Marketing back in May – this will likely continue to evolve in 2021!
6. Comic relief: An ode to humour. In darkness, you always try and find the light and in this piece, I shed some light on all things comedy and how it can be used as an effective communicative tool.
7. Do company values add value? Company values have been particularly tested this year. In this piece from Christian, he explored what they really add to a company and whether they’re worth it or not.
8. Employee communications after sudden transformation. In this playbook, Charlotte explores the challenges that leadership have faced throughout COVID-19 when it comes to communicating to employees and what organisations can do to unify the workforce following a period of sudden change.A must-read for any internal comms departments!
9. The COVID-19 casebook. Many companies went to superhuman lengths this year, going above and beyond to help those in need this year. In this casebook, Christian highlights some of the unsung heroes in the B2B world.
10. The Firefly guide to shaping your reputation. After some serious hard work and brain power, we launched Firefly: The Reputation Shapers, our brand-new proposition. As part of the launch, we put together our guide to reputation management which reflects our proud history and abilities as an agency.  

We look forward to writing more inspiring and thought-provoking content in 2021 and continuing to shape the reputation of tech-driven companies. Bring it on!

How do I run the perfect brainstorm?

As my fellow Fireflies have written, coming up with new ideas when you’re not in the same room as your colleagues can be a challenge. In this piece, we’ll revisit a timeless topic – how to run the perfect brainstorm*.

Surprisingly, modern thinking about brainstorms has changed considerably in the last decade. According to the Harvard Business Review in 2015, “There is very little evidence for the idea that brainstorming produces more or better ideas than the same number of individuals would produce working independently. In fact, a great deal of evidence indicates that brainstorming actually harms creative performance, resulting in a collective performance loss that is the very opposite of synergy.”

This is exactly why we should use a dual-stream approach to brainstorming. As Alexander Graham Bell said, ‘Preparation is the key to everything’, so here’s our timeless approach to getting new ideas, whether together in person or remote, and making sure that you don’t harm the ‘creative performance’ of your team when the pressure is on.

Preparing to Win

The best brainstorms begin long before everyone gets on the phone or in the same room, pandemic permitting. First and foremost, it’s important to understand what your goal is – what are you looking to generate an idea for? Similarly, before you restrict your mind with other people’s ideas (in this case, within your research), it’s important to think about the kinds of thing you’d like to do based on prior experience. For example, by thinking about:

– Personal Preferences: What would I like to do more of in this area?

– Past Experiences: When we did this kind of thing before, was there anything that we wanted to explore further?

– Timeliness: Given the times of year or other circumstances, is there anything that springs to mind?

Once you’ve done that, then you should start your solo research in earnest, looking at things like:

– Sector Rivals: What things have competitors or companies in other sectors done that we could take a step further or take inspiration from?

– Broad Industry Context: Have you seen anything in professional press, analyst reports or from influencers that looked interesting and could be inspiring? 

Much like a brainstorm, it’s important to jot everything down that springs into your head. Don’t worry if it initially sounds terrible or weird – it might be inspiring to someone else! If you have the time, it’s also good to let these ideas simmer; leave them for a day or so and then come back to your thinking, jotting down anything else that you think of in the interim.

This pre-work is also key because there are several pitfalls to avoid in group sessions.

Creative Performance Limiters

When you’re in any kind of group session, politics and power come into play. There are three main effects that we’ve seen:

Conformity: People don’t like to stand out. So, if most of the group focuses on one particular area during the session, the minority is less likely to speak out. Preparation minimises this because the process of preparing and ‘simmering’ helps to convince you that your own ideas are valid.

Power Imbalances: If there are very senior or very junior people in the session, the very senior people are likely to speak more and the very junior speak less. A good facilitator can help to overcome this, encouraging everyone to speak, regardless of their level.

Self-consciousness: It’s perfectly natural to feel slightly stupid on a remote brainstorm, particularly when there might be a delay on the line. Again, preparation and the desire to discuss all the ideas you’ve put down can help with this. Similarly, there’s no harm in following up with the brainstorm leader if you can’t squeeze an idea into the conversation – sometimes there are just too many good ideas!

Brainstorm Roles

In a perfect world, you’d also have three support staff in your brainstorm: a chairperson, a facilitator and a scribe. Here’s why:

– Chairperson: This person keeps things moving along. They also make sure that good ideas get the attention they deserve and stop discussions that aren’t adding anything.

– Facilitator: Encourages people to talk, offers praise and helps to develop ideas.

– Scribe: Writes down all the ideas!

Different Models of Brainstorming

We’ve seen a few different models of brainstorming used over our time in communications, three of which we’ve listed below. Admittedly, the first two are our favourites. Despite the limiting factors we’ve discussed above, the importance of getting other people’s perspectives on your ideas is incredibly valuable.

The Classic: Everyone comes together and throws ideas around. Make sure to bring sweet treats or caffeine!

Facilitated: Uses a set of prompts – for example, images – and each participant offers an idea inspired by those images relating to the brief.

Separately but Together: The Covid brainstorm! A time slot is set, and everyone brainstorms separately then shares their ideas digitally. This model isn’t vulnerable to power dynamics, but it doesn’t allow participants to riff off each other’s ideas as well as the other two.

Other Considerations

Above all, remember that brainstorming is a team sport. Most good ideas aren’t just from one person, they’re from someone else (or lots of people) and involve everyone contributing to an idea and evolving it. So, do listen, evolve ideas, or just reinforce them if you think they’re great! At the same time, do develop other people’s ideas, but also push new ones; keep the quantity going and there may be common themes that emerge between ideas.

It’s also important to remember that the perfect idea may not come up straight away. In fact, there’s usually a lot of dud ideas to get through first. For this reason, don’t hold back, however daft your idea seems; unusual ideas may prompt different ways of thinking and new directions. Even if they don’t work, they might inspire something else. In the same breath, hold back your criticism in a brainstorm, because you might inhibit other ideas from coming out from other team members.

Finally, if you can, be somewhere else – don’t brainstorm where you work. It can be useful to have a laptop or phone with you to search for things online as you talk, but taking yourself into a new setting and avoiding distractions is always helpful.

So, there we go; our top tips for running a brainstorm during (or after) the pandemic. Clearly, you don’t have to take all of our advice to run a good session, but it is important to be aware of the limiting factors, and that there are alternatives to the ‘classic’ model of getting ideas. Above all, the old adage is true: fail to prepare, prepare to fail! 

*As almost everyone knows, the word ‘brainstorm’ has historically been seen as offensive. However, according to Epilepsy.org, Epilepsy Action and the National Society for Epilepsy, it’s no longer seen this way. We’ll take their word for it.